Alija Izetbegovic, who is paying visit to the Republic of Turkey, laid flowers on the grave of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – the founder of the modern Turkey. Both BiH and Turkey’s Presidents gave solemn declarations expressing their hopes for successful bilateral co-operation, as well as their conviction that BiH will preserve its multi-ethnic character as an independent, sovereign and territorially undivided country. The talks of the two Presidents were held behind closed doors, presumably about the directives from the Sintra summit, schooling of the BiH Army officers in Turkey, additions to the project Equip and train, arresting of the war crimes indicted persons and reconstruction of BiH.
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Despite the fact that the BiH Parliamentary Assembly scheduled for today, did not convene and did not adopt the QSP laws due to new RS demands concerning the Customs Law and the Law on the Central Bank, the HR’s Principal Deputy, Michael Steiner threw off any possibility of a new delay of the Donors Conference, earlier conditioned with the acceptance of the QSP laws in full. The Conference, if needed can be held without the RS representatives, Steiner told press conference held in the OHR today. No side in BiH will have an opportunity to hold another side hostage while it itself abstains from already agreed issues.. He also announced that he would meet Momcilo Krajisnik, Presidency member, late tonight to hear once more his clear standpoint on this question. The final stance of the International Community on this issue might be announced even as soon as tomorrow.
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The sessions of both Houses of the BiH Federation Parliament have been scheduled – The House of Representatives for Wednesday, 12 June and House of Peoples for Tuesday, 17 June.
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Jadranko Prlic, BiH Foreign Minister is attending a two day conference of the South East European countries at ministerial level, which started in Solun today. Prlic is representing the Association of the countries of the Central European Initiative which is this year chaired by BiH. He informed the members of the Solun conference of the final document and results of the Ministerial meeting of the Central European Initiative in Sarajevo, as well as of the planned activities of the Association.
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Following information on the local elections in which Haris Silajdzic, CoM Co-Chair in a comment for BiH TV, urged voters to register for the forthcoming elections and to go to the polls. In the phase of the building up of the democratic and unified BiH, it is very important that the voters express their political wish through the elections, Silajdzic said. According to the OSCE data 1.3 m. of BiH citizens registered for the elections.
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The deadline for voter registration in BiH local elections will not be prolonged, David Foley, OSCE Spokesman told reporters today. Follows a lengthy interview with David Foley on the same subject.
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Concerned about the slow implementation of the civilian aspect of the Dayton Accord, and worried about the recent unpleasant incidents in the inter entity boundaries region, the high rank representatives of the four religions in BiH signed a joint declaration on the moral obligation and commitment in which they call on all people of good will to take responsibility for their own deeds. Declaration was signed by: Mustafa Ceric, Reis-Ul-Ulema of the Islamic Religion Community in BiH, Nikolaj, Dabro-Bosanski Mithropolit, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archibishop of Sarajevo and Jakob Finci, President of the Jewish Community in BiH.
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Summary SRT News
Banja Luka – RS President Plavsic met two Greek Orthodox Church priests and awarded them with medals of honour ‘Njegos’ for helping the Serbs during the war. After the meeting, Plavsic said that they are the ones who are spreading the truth and it is not enough to just thank them for their big heart and love which they have been giving to the Serbs.3:00
Pale – The RS President in the BiH Presidency, Krajisnik met the Head of the OSCE mission in BiH, Frowick, and discussed the upcoming local elections. After the meeting, Frowick only said that the talks will be continued.
2:00
Pale – After the meeting with Ambassador Frowick, Krajisnik met Ambassador Steiner. The talks are still on going.
Srbinje [Foca] – The RS Prime Minister Klickovic and other members of the RS Government met the Srbinje leadership and discussed the planned re-setlement of residents, return of refugees and providing financial resources and accomodation for the return. They also talked about revitalisation of economy, and the increasing number of problems in the process of restarting the industry.
3:00
Flash News:
- The Dutch media reports that the Hague Tribunal made it possible for finding an accused person guilty even if there isn’t substantial evidence whether he/she was or wasn’t at the scene of the crime of which he/she stands accused. In theory, this means that all the persons who were present in former BiH during the war can be accused of war crimes. The proceedings against Tadic and the fact that he wasn’t directly accused for any of the verdicts passed on him prove that there is a conflict of different legal systems at the Tribunal. Those legal systems contradict each other, but do allow the Hague Tribunal to endlessly combine different methods of pressing charges. By using such a system, the Hague Tribunal managed to sentence Tadic because he wasn’t able to prove that he had not been at the scene of the crime for which he was indicted.
- Neues Deutschland reports on the comment of the German publicist Goebel (who recently published his analysis on the DPA) to the statement of HR Bildt’s successor. Westendorp said that BiH will be united, although the DPA divides it into two, the RS and the BiH Federation. Therefore, Westendorp is unscrupulously violating the DPA, and by his statement he has allowed continuance of ethnic cleansing of the Serbs.
- The French independent monthly, Balkan Info, writes that the refusal to publish Lord Owen’s book, ‘Balkans Ulysses’, is a shameful act of the publisher which shows the fear of truth. This papers underlines the parts of the book with regard to the shell that exploded on the Sarajevo market place, the Muslim attempts to involve the NATO into the war on their side, and the testimonies of British diplomats about the Serb readiness to negotiate the demilitarisation of Sarajevo before the NATO bombing.
- German weekly, Der Spiegel reports that Franjo Tudjman almost succeeded where the Ustashi criminal Ante Pavelic failed – to ethnically cleanse the Serbs from Croatia. Of 600,000 Serbs who lived in Croatia before the war, about 480,000 fled the country.
5:00
Thanks to co-operation between the RS Government and the Swedish businessmen, the financial resources for construction of about 20,000 housing units in the Serb Sarajevo and Serb Sanski Most will soon be provided.
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